Paul McCartney

Out of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney by far had the most
successful solo career, maintaining a constant presence in the
British and American charts during the '70s and '80s. In America
alone, he had nine number one singles and seven number one albums
during the first 12 years of his solo career, and in his native
United Kingdom, his record was nearly as impressive. McCartney's
hot streak began in 1970, when he became the first Beatle to leave
the group. A little more than a year after the Beatles' breakup,
McCartney formed Wings with his wife Linda and Moody Blues
guitarist Denny Laine, and the group remained active for the next
ten years, racking up a string of hit albums, singles, and tours in
the meantime. Wings disbanded in 1980 but McCartney stayed near the
top of the charts over the next five years, thanks in part to a
couple big duets with Michael Jackson. McCartney revived his solo
career in 1989 via Flowers in the Dirt and its accompanying
international tour, setting a template he would follow into the new
millennium, when he'd support his records by playing concerts
around the world. Between these massive endeavors, McCartney
pursued other projects, including classical compositions, an
electronica outfit with Youth called the Fireman, and overseeing
archival projects such as the Beatles' Anthology series. As the
21st century rolled on, McCartney continued to take risks,
including recording an album of standards from the Great American
Songbook and collaborating with rapper Kanye West, proving that
there was no area of popular music he couldn't touch. Like John
Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney began exploring creative
avenues outside the Beatles during the late '60s, but where his
bandmates released their own experimental records, McCartney
confined himself to writing and producing for other artists, with
the exception of his 1966 soundtrack to The Family Way. Following
his marriage to Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969, McCartney began
working at his home studio on his first solo album. He released
McCartney in April 1970, two weeks before the Beatles' Let It Be
was scheduled to hit the stores. Prior to the album's release, he'd
announced that the Beatles were breaking up, against the wishes of
the other members. As a result, the tensions between him and the
other three members, particularly Harrison and Lennon, increased
and he earned the ill will of many critics. Nevertheless, McCartney
became a hit, spending three weeks at the top of the American
charts. Early in 1971, he returned with "Another Day," which became
his first hit single as a solo artist. It was followed several
months later by Ram, another homemade collection, this time
featuring the contributions of his wife, Linda. By the end of 1971,
the McCartneys had formed Wings, which was intended to be a
full-fledged recording and touring band. Former Moody Blues
guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell became the group's
other members, and Wings released their first album, Wild Life, in
December 1971. Wild Life was greeted with poor reviews and was a
relative flop. McCartney and Wings, which now featured former
Grease Band guitarist Henry McCullough, spent 1972 as a working
band, releasing three singles -- the protest "Give Ireland Back to
the Irish," the reggae-fied "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the
rocking "Hi Hi Hi." Red Rose Speedway followed in the spring of
1973, and while it received weak reviews, it became his second
American number one album. Later in 1973, Wings embarked on their
first British tour, at the conclusion of which McCullough and
Seiwell left the band. Prior to their departure, McCartney's theme
to the James Bond movie Live and Let Die became a Top Ten hit in
the U.S. and U.K. That summer, the remaining Wings proceeded to
record a new album in Nigeria. Released late in 1973, Band on the
Run was simultaneously McCartney's best-reviewed album and his most
successful, spending four weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and
eventually going triple-platinum. Following the success of Band on
the Run, McCartney formed a new version of Wings with guitarist
Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. The new lineup was
showcased on the 1974 British single "Junior's Farm" and the 1975
hit album Venus and Mars. At the Speed of Sound followed in 1976;
it was the first Wings record to feature songwriting contributions
by the other bandmembers. Nevertheless, the album became a monster
success on the basis of two McCartney songs, "Silly Love Songs" and
"Let 'Em In." Wings supported the album with their first
international tour, which broke many attendance records and was
captured on the live triple-album Wings Over America (1976). After
the tour was completed, Wings rested a bit during 1977, as
McCartney released an instrumental version of Ram under the name
Thrillington, and produced Denny Laine's solo album Holly Days.
Later that year, Wings released "Mull of Kintyre," which became the
biggest-selling British single of all time, selling over two
million copies. Wings followed "Mull of Kintyre" with London Town
in 1978, which became another platinum record. After its release,
McCulloch left the band to join the re-formed Small Faces, and
Wings released Back to the Egg in 1979. Though the record went
platinum, it failed to produce any big hits. Early in 1980,
McCartney was arrested for marijuana possession at the beginning of
a Japanese tour; he was imprisoned for ten days and then released,
without any charges being pressed. Wings effectively broke up in
the wake of McCartney's Japanese bust, although its official
dissolution was not announced until April 27, 1981, when Denny
Laine left the band. Back in England, McCartney recorded McCartney
II, which was a one-man band effort like his solo debut.
Ironically, the hit single associated with the album was a live
take of the song "Coming Up" that had been recorded in Glasgow with
Wings in December 1979 and was intended to be the B-side of the 45,
with the solo studio recording as the A-side. DJs preferred the
live version, however, and it went on to hit number one. Later in
1980, McCartney entered the studio with Beatles producer George
Martin to make Tug of War. Released in the spring of 1982, Tug of
War received the best reviews of any McCartney record since Band on
the Run and spawned the number one single with "Ebony and Ivory," a
duet with Stevie Wonder that became McCartney's biggest American
hit. In 1983, McCartney sang on "The Girl Is Mine," the first
single from Michael Jackson's blockbuster album Thriller. In
return, Jackson duetted with McCartney on "Say Say Say," the first
single from McCartney's 1983 album Pipes of Peace and the last
number one single of his career. The relationship between Jackson
and McCartney soured considerably when Jackson bought the
publishing rights to the Beatles' songs out from underneath
McCartney in 1985. McCartney directed his first feature film in
1984 with Give My Regards to Broad Street. While the soundtrack,
which featured new songs and re-recorded Beatles tunes, was a hit,
generating the hit single "No More Lonely Nights," the film was a
flop, earning terrible reviews. The following year, he had his last
American Top Ten with the theme to the Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd
comedy Spies Like Us. Press to Play (1986) received some strong
reviews but was another flop. In 1988, he recorded a collection of
rock & roll oldies called Choba B CCCP for release in the
U.S.S.R.; it was given official release in the U.S. and U.K. in
1991. For 1989's Flowers in the Dirt, McCartney co-wrote several
songs with Elvis Costello; the pair also wrote songs for Costello's
Spike, including the hit "Veronica." Flowers in the Dirt received
the strongest reviews of any McCartney release since Tug of War,
and was supported by an extensive international tour, which was
captured on the live double-album Tripping the Live Fantastic
(1990). For the tour, McCartney hired guitarist Robbie McIntosh and
bassist Hamish Stuart, who would form the core of his band through
the remainder of the '90s. Early in 1991, McCartney released
another live album in the form of Unplugged, which was taken from
his appearance on MTV's acoustic concert program of the same name;
it was the first Unplugged album to be released. Later that year,
he unveiled Liverpool Oratorio, his first classical work. Another
pop album, Off the Ground, followed in 1993, but failed to generate
any big hits, despite McCartney's successful supporting tour.
Following the completion of the New World tour, he released another
live album, Paul Is Live, in December 1993. In 1994, he released an
ambient techno album under the pseudonym the Fireman. McCartney
premiered his second classical piece, The Leaf, early in 1995 and
then began hosting a Westwood One radio series called Oobu Joobu.
But his primary activity in 1995, as well as 1996, was the Beatles'
Anthology, which encompassed a lengthy video documentary of the
band and the multi-volume release of Beatles outtakes and rarities.
After Anthology was completed, he released Flaming Pie in summer
1997. A low-key, largely acoustic affair that had some of the same
charm of his debut, Flaming Pie was given the strongest reviews
McCartney had received in years and was a modest commercial
success, debuting at number two on the U.S. and U.K. charts; it was
his highest American chart placing since he left the Beatles.
Flaming Pie certainly benefited from the success of Anthology, as
did McCartney himself -- only a few months before the release of
the album in 1997, he received a Knighthood. On April 17, 1998,
Linda McCartney died after a three-year struggle with breast
cancer. A grieving Paul kept a low profile in the months to follow,
but finally returned in fall 1999 with Run Devil Run, a collection
that primarily included cover songs. The electronica-based
Liverpool Sound Collage followed a year later, and the pop album
Driving Rain -- a successor, of sorts, to Flaming Pie -- came a
year after that. The live album Back in the U.S. appeared in
America in 2002 with the slightly different international edition,
Back in the World, following soon after. McCartney's next studio
project included sessions with super-producer Nigel Godrich, the
results of which appeared on the mellow Chaos and Creation in the
Back Yard, released in late 2005. The album reached the Top Ten in
more than a dozen countries, including the U.S. and U.K. McCartney
performed every instrument (not including the strings) on 2007's
David Kahne-produced Memory Almost Full, a bold but whimsical
collection of new songs, some of which had been recorded before the
Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard sessions. It too reached the
Top Ten across the world. A live CD/DVD set, Good Evening New York
City, appeared in 2009. The following year, McCartney kicked off an
extensive reissue campaign with a box set of Band on the Run, and
he supported the reissue with an American tour in the summer of
2011. Later in 2011, McCartney released his first ballet, Ocean's
Kingdom, and less than a year later followed with another first --
his first collection of pre-WWII standards. The latter work, titled
Kisses on the Bottom, topped the U.S. jazz charts and reached the
Top Five in seven different countries. His busy year continued
during the summer, when he ended the opening ceremony of London's
2012 Olympics with a set that included a customary extended version
of "Hey Jude." A surprising cap to 2012 came that December when he
appeared on-stage with the surviving ex-members of Nirvana as part
of a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The year 2013
brought recording sessions with four of McCartney's favorite
producers: Paul Epworth, Ethan Johns, Giles Martin, and Mark
Ronson. His initial intention had been to hold trial sessions with
each producer, aiming to select one of them to oversee the whole of
his next album. However, each of them had a hand in producing New,
his first album of original material in six years, which appeared
that October. New debuted in the Top Ten in more than a dozen
countries and McCartney supported the album over the next two years
with a series of international tours. In 2015, he continued his
ongoing Paul McCartney Archive Collection with deluxe reissues of
Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. The next summer he released Pure
McCartney, a personally curated overview of his solo career
available in two separate incarnations: a double-disc set and a
four-disc box. Flowers in the Dirt arrived in early 2017 as part of
the singer's Archive Collection. In September 2018, he delivered
the Greg Kurstin-produced Egypt Station, his 17th solo album; it
was preceded by the singles "I Don't Know," "Come on to Me," and
"Fuh You." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & William Ruhlmann

According to Paul McCartney, working on the Beatles Anthology project inspired him to record an album that was stripped-back, immediate, and fun, one less studied and produced than most of his recent work. In many ways, Flaming Pie fulfills those goals. A largely acoustic collection of simple songs, Flaming Pie is direct and unassuming, and at its best, it recalls the homely charm of McCartney and Ram. McCartney still has a tendency to wallow in trite sentiment, and his more ambitious numbers, like the string-drenched epic "Beautiful Night" or the silly Beatlesque psychedelia of "Flaming Pie," fall a little flat. But when he works on a small scale, as on the waltzing "The Song We Were Singing," "Calico Skies," "Great Day," and "Little Willow," he's gently affecting, and the moderately rocking pop of "The World Tonight" and "Young Boy" is more ingratiating than the pair of aimless bluesy jams with Steve Miller. Even with the filler, which should be expected on any McCartney album, Flaming Pie is one of his most successful latter-day efforts, mainly because McCartney is at his best when he doesn't try so hard and lets his effortless melodic gifts rise to the surface. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Technically, All the Best was the first compilation of McCartney's solo material, since Wings Greatest covered songs released under the Wings aegis. Well, there is considerable overlap between the two records -- no less than ten of that album's 12 songs are here, yet only the hard-rocking "Hi Hi Hi" is truly missed -- although the seven new songs do give this album a different character, for better or worse. With the U.S. version of All the Best, which has four different songs than its British counterpart, the balance shifts toward the positive, since it simply boasts a better selection of songs. Yes, "Once Upon a Long Ago," the single offered as bait on the British All the Best, isn't here, but it's not missed since two of the four songs exclusive to the American version are among McCartney's best solo singles ("Junior's Farm," "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey") and the other two are good adult contemporary easy listening (the previously non-LP "Goodnight Tonight," "With a Little Luck"). These songs add to the retrospective, although it's still not perfect -- such highlights as "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Take It Away" really should have been included. However, as a cross section of McCartney's solo singles, this is very, very good. It may be a little heavy on the schmaltz at times, yet this is still mainstream pop craft of the highest order. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine